Cartridge holder and connector system

ABSTRACT

A cartridge holder and interconnect system is disclosed formed primarily of two components, namely, a cartridge and an assembly for receiving and holding the cartridge. The holder assembly includes a housing of rigid insulative material and a connector member adapted to engage a circuit board or the like and to engage the cartridge. The holder assembly also has a replaceable face plate profiled for polarizing and keying reception of an appropriate cartridge in the housing. The face plate is detachably secured to the housing so that by simply replacing the face plate the housing can be adapted to receive different cartridges. The housing is also adapted to be situated spaced above a circuit board so as to accommodate components thereunder thereby preserving the available surface of circuit board. The cartridge is formed by a two-piece housing enclosing a circuit board having components, such as integrated circuits, mounted thereon and held within the cartridge in such fashion as to obviate the need for potting, etc. The cartridge also has a connector portion with a profiled mating face for keying and means for covering or exposing a reflective surface used to disable a writing capability for the circuit carried by the cartridge.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. The Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a system for mounting andinterconnecting a cartridge with a circuit board or the like and inparticular to a system wherein a single holder can be utilized with awide variety of cartridges.

2. The Prior Art

There is a growing need for electronic equipment to be able toaccommodate memory, and other add-on components, in the form ofcartridges so that primary equipment can be readily adapted to perform awide variety of functions. An example of this would be cartridgescontaining tapes having computer programs thereon and which cartridgescould be inserted into a portion of a computer to run a specificprogram. Likewise, a cartridge could contain an information storagesystem, such as a bubble memory, and be inserted into a computer inorder to supply it with specific information relating to a particularprogram. Heretofore, systems that were capable of handling cartridgeshave not had the desired versatility and/or were extremely expensive.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a cartridge holder assembly utilized todetachably connect a cartridge to a main equipment unit. The subjectassembly includes a cartridge holder which is mounted on a circuit boardor like portion of the main equipment unit and defines a cavity forreceiving a cartridge therein. Both the cartridge and the holder includeelectrical interconnecting means to effect the electricalinterconnection between the cartridge and the circuit board of the mainequipment unit. The holder has one portion defining a cartridgereceiving cavity and a second portion defining an electricalinterconnection means for making interconnection between the circuitboard and the cartridge. The holder also includes a removable face plateserving to polarize and key the holder for reception of variouscartridges without otherwise required reconfiguring of the holder. Thecartridge has mating first and second housing members defining a circuitreceiving cavity therebetween and electrical connector means connectedto the circuitry and exposed at one end of the cartridge. The cartridgealso includes a profiled face for polarizing and keying the cartridge.The cartridge also, preferably, has a profile making it suitable forstacking and housing members which can be separated with standard toolsto facilitate repair when necessary.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to produce animproved cartridge holder assembly which can be utilized to detachablymate any one of a plurality of information cartridges to a mainequipment unit in a ready and economic manner.

It is another object of the present invention to produce an improvedcartridge holder having a housing received on and spaced above a circuitboard so as to allow utilization of substantially the entire surface ofthe circuit board.

It is a further object of the present invention to produce a cartridgeholder in which a holder assembly has a removable face plate defining acartridge receiving opening which is both polarized and keyed allowingsimple adaptation of the holder for a wide variety of cartridges to bereceived therein.

It is another object of the present invention to produce an improvedcartridge holder wherein an integrated circuit assembly can be mountedin a cartridge without the use of potting or other securing means butwhich will allow the addition of thermal conductive means if desired.

It is a further object of the present invention to produce a cartridgeholder assembly which can be utilized for detachably inserting bubblememory containing cartridges into main equipment, such as a computer,with the equipment being readily reconfigured to accept only a specificone of a plurality of different cartridges and with the cartridgesreadily arranged to accept the rewrite of material contained therein orto bar any alteration of the contained material.

It is another object of the present invention to produce an improvedcartridge holder system and components thereof which can be readily andeconomically produced.

The means for accomplishing the foregoing objects and other advantagesof the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in theart from the following detailed description taken with reference to theaccompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of the housing portion of thesubject cartridge holder system;

FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of the cartridge portion of thesubject cartridge holder system;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the assembled housing of FIG. 1 with theassembled cartridge of FIG. 2 exploded therefrom;

FIG. 4 is a vertical longitudinal section through the assembledcartridge of FIG. 3; and

FIG. 5 is a vertical longitudinal section through the cartridge andhousing of FIG. 3 in the assembled condition.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

The subject cartridge holder connector system 10 (FIG. 3) includes aholder housing 12 (FIG. 1) and a cartridge 14 (FIG. 2). The holderhousing 12 is formed by a main housing member 16, a connector housing18, and a face plate 20 all preferably formed of rigid insulativematerial. The main housing 16 defines a cartridge receiving cavity 22with at least one locking latch 24 extending along one side of anddirected into the cavity. The main housing also has a plurality ofrearwardly extending locking latches 26, 28, and downwardly directedmounting feet 30. The main housing is completed by an integral frontflange 32, which has a recess 34 to receive face plate 20 and indents36, 38, which receive a pair of light emitting diodes 40, 42,respectively. The connector housing 18 is an integral member of rigidinsulative material having a plurality of terminals 44 mounted therein,each terminal having a pin portion 46 extending into the cavity 22 and adepending leg portion 48 which is adapted to be received in a like pinaperture 50 in a circuit board 52 to be secured to the circuitry thereofin conventional fashion, such as by way of soldering. The connectorhousing 18 also includes mounting feet 54 and profiled latching detents56, 58.

The face plate 20 is profiled to be received in the recess 34 in thefront flange 32 of the main housing 16 and defines a cartridge receivingaperture 60 with a plurality of inwardly directed keying and polarizinglugs 62. The face plate 20 also has a pair of apertures 64, 66, whichare aligned with the respective indents 36, 38 so that diodes 40, 42 arevisible.

The main housing 16 overlies a source and sensor assembly 68 which issecured to the circuit board 52. The purpose of this assembly will bediscussed later.

The cartridge assembly 14 is best seen in FIG. 2 and has first cover 70and second cover 72 each having respective latching means 74, 76 todetachably secure the cover members together defining a cavity 78therebetween. The first cover 70 includes a plurality of integral,inwardly directed, resilient mounting flanges 80, 82, and an outwardlydirected stacking profile 84, the purposes of which will be discussedbelow. The first cover 70 also includes a profiled slot 86 in which aswitch plate 88 is slidably positioned and a transverse, inwardlydirected recess 90 (see FIG. 4). The second cover 72 has a plurality ofintegral, inwardly directed support bars 92, outwardly directed,profiled stacking recess 94, and a transverse, inwardly directed recess96 (see FIG. 4). A circuit board assembly 98, include a variety ofcomponents, such as the illustrated bubble memory 100, connected to acircuit board 102 in conventional fashion. A receptacle housing 104containing a first row of terminals 106 and a second row of terminals108 is secured to one edge of the circuit board 102 as best seen in FIG.4. The housing 104 includes a profiled mating face 110. The cartridge 14is completed by a front cover 112 having a rearwardly directedperipherial flange 114, adapted to enclose mating face 110, andoutwardly directed ridges 116, 118 adapted to engage in recesses 90, 96,respectively. The front cover is also profiled with a series of keyingprojections 120. A tab of reflective tape 122 and an identificationplate 124 are also included. The cartridge would be assembled by firstforming the circuit board assembly 98 by mounting components 100 andreceptacle housing 104 on circuit board 102. The terminals 106, 108 andcomponents 100 would be secured to the circuit board in conventionalfashion, such as by wave soldering. The front cover 112 would next beapplied with flange 114 enclosing mating face 110. This assembly wouldbe placed in cover 72, tape 122 added, and cover 70 applied to completethe cartridge. It will be appreciated that engagement of ridges 116, 118in recesses 90, 96 and latching means 74, 76 will securely hold thecartridge together.

It should be noted that the front cover 112 would have to have the sameconfiguration as the face plate 20 for the cartridge 14 to be receivedin housing 12. In order to change the keying configuration, it is onlynecessary to replace these two parts.

When the cartridge 14 is fully inserted into the housing 12, thereflective tape 122 will either be covered or exposed by the positioningof the switch plate 88. This fact will be noted by the source-sensorassembly 68 which will either enable alteration of the informationstored in the cartridge or disable the cartridge from having theinformation changed.

It should also be noted, from FIG. 4, that one terminal 108 illustratedis seated slightly deeper into the housing 104 than the rest of theterminals. The illustrated terminal 108 is the only one of the secondrow which has offset location. This means that when the cartridge isbeing withdrawn from the housing, terminal 108 will be the first todisengage and this will shut off the necessary circuitry to preventerasure of material stored in the cartridge.

The present invention may be subject to many modifications and changeswithout departing from the spirit or essential characteristics thereof.The present embodiment is therefore intended in all respects as beingillustrative and not restrictive of the scope of the invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A cartridge receiving connector systemcomprising:a holder housing having means for mounting said holderhousing on a circuit board, said holder housing defining a cartridgereceiving cavity; a connector housing detachably secured to said holderhousing to close one end of said cartridge receiving cavity; a pluralityof electrical terminals mounted in said connector housing, each saidterminal having one end making interconnection to said circuit board andan opposite end extending into said cartridge receiving cavity; faceplate means mountable on said holder housing defining a profiled entryto the other end of said cartridge receiving cavity; and a cartridgeassembly receivable in said cartridge receiving cavity and formed by apair of mating cover members defining a circuit cavity therebetween, acircuit assembly mounted in said circuit cavity and having electricalconnector means directed outwardly of said circuit cavity, and anapertured cover plate enclosing said circuit cavity and defining aprofile for said cartridge which allows it to be inserted into saidcartridge receiving cavity of said holder housing.
 2. A connector systemaccording to claim 1 wherein said means for mounting said holder housingmember are of sufficient length to space said holder housing above saidcircuit board allowing positioning of components therebetween.
 3. Aconnector system according to claim 1 further comprising:cantileverlatching means integral with said holder housing and extending along oneside of said cartridge receiving cavity, inwardly directed shouldermeans on the free end of said latching means whereby said cartridgeassembly can be secured in said housing.
 4. A connector system accordingto claim 1 further comprising:rearwardly directed latching means on saidholder housing, and latching lugs on said connector housing whereby saidconnector housing is detachably secured to said holder housing.
 5. Aconnector system according to claim 1 further comprising:at least onerecess in said holder housing, and light emitting status indicatingmeans mounted in each said recess and visible through said face platemeans.
 6. A connector system according to claim 1 wherein said holderhousing and said connector housing are formed of rigid insulativematerial.
 7. A connector system according to claim 1 wherein each saidterminal has a mating portion directed toward said cartridge receivingcavity and a solder tail directed toward and engaging said circuitboard.
 8. A connector system according to claim 1 further comprising:aslot formed in one of said cover members, plate means slidably receivedin said slot, and reflective means secured in said cartridge assemblywhereby when said plate means is in a first position said reflectivemeans is covered and when said plate means is in a second position saidreflective means is exposed.
 9. A connector system according to claim 1further comprising:an externally directed profiled recess in one of saidcover members; and an externally directed like profiled projection inthe other of said cover members whereby a plurality of said cartridgescan be stacked one upon another.
 10. A connector system according toclaim 1 further comprising:at least one terminal having a shorterconfiguration than the other terminals whereby said one terminal willdisconnect before the others upon removal of said cartridge assemblyfrom said holder housing disabling the circuit assembly carried thereby.11. A connector system according to claim 1 further comprising:anidentification plate secured to said cartridge assembly cover members.12. A connector system according to claim 1 further comprising:at leastone rigid inwardly directed flange on one of said cover members, and atleast one resilient inwardly directed flange on the other of said covermembers whereby said circuit assembly will be securely supported in saidcircuit cavity.